IRL Upset About Prospect of Being Snubbed in New Coalition Talks
Speaker Ene Ergma (IRL) has criticized the Reform Party's candidate for prime minister, Siim Kallas, for allegedly contemplating a coalition with the Social Democrats rather than with IRL, Reform's current partner.
"IRL has been a trustworthy coalition partner in good and tough times. IRL didn't leave the government during the global financial crisis as the Social Democrats did. But people tend to forget things in politics," Ergma said in today's Eesti Päevaleht.
IRL being a national conservative party and Reform market liberal, a coalition with the Social Democrats would represent a turn to the left, Ergma said.
"I think the change of government a year before elections is extremely silly even without the Ukraine crisis, because no one will manage to implement a serious program in that one year," she said.
It's still far from certain who will form or join the new government, though. On Monday, in the same publication, Kallas denied he was considering the Social Democrats as bedfellows.
“Estonia is a small place, there are all sorts of discussions going on, but there has not been any official discussion,” Kallas was quoted by BBN as saying.